Iron Guard

[ ahy-ern gahrd ]

noun

1. a Romanian fascist party that was extremely nationalistic and antisemitic: recognized from 1927 until banned in 1941.

Iron Guard

noun

1. a Romanian fascist party that ceased to exist after World War II

Other Words From

• I·ron-Guard adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Iron Guard¹

First recorded in 1930–35; translation of Romanian Garda de Fier

Example Sentences

The cases Mr. Sher prosecuted or oversaw included those of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of having been a death camp guard and deported to Germany; Archbishop Valerian Trifa, who, as part of the antisemitic Iron Guard of Romania, was reported to have instigated a pogrom in 1941 against Jews in Bucharest; and Arthur Rudolph, who was accused of “working slave laborers to death” in the V-2 rocket factory in Germany before becoming the project manager of NASA’s Saturn 5 rocket program, which was critical to the Apollo spaceflights.

From New York Times

Iasi was also a center of Romanian anti-Semitism, birthplace of the Iron Guard, a precursor to the fascist Romanian government that allied itself with Nazi Germany in World War II. In June 1941, Romania joined its German ally in invading the Soviet Union.

From New York Times

The U.S. government alleged Trifa had been an ardent Nazi supporter who wrote inflammatory newspaper articles and made anti-Jewish speeches as a member of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist group.

From Washington Times

Romania was in the grips of a Fascist regime, the Iron Guard, and that regime’s policies, politicians, ideologues, and ideas suffuse the film’s dialogue, with its advocates talking, freely but cheerfully and even satirically, about its authoritarian and anti-Semitic ideologies—and, for that matter, about the significance of Hitler and Germany’s Nazi regime.

From The New Yorker

As King Michael finished his education, Carol abolished the constitution and paved the way for his overthrow in 1940 by a military government led by the fascist Antonescu and his “Iron Guard” regime.

From Washington Post